turned to address Carrington.

"You remember Hamilton, senior, don't you?" he asked.

"Very well!" replied the gentleman of weight. His red face grew almost
apoplectic, and the big body writhed in the chair. His tones were
surcharged with a bitterness that he tried in vain to conceal. Morton
regarded these signs of feeling with an amusement that he had no
reluctance in displaying. On the contrary, he laughed aloud in his
associate's face.

"Well, yes," he said, still smiling, "I fancy that you ought to remember
Hamilton, senior, and remember him very well, too. But, anyhow, by-gones
are by-gones. You weren't alone in your misery, Carrington. He beat me,
too, several times."

Hamilton smiled now, but wryly.

"So," he suggested whimsically, yet bitterly, "now that he's dead, you
two gentlemen have decided to combine in order to beat his son. That's
about it, eh?"

Carrington, who was not blessed with a self-control, or an art of
hypocrisy equal to that of his ally, emitted a cackling laugh of
triumph. But Morton refused to accept the charge. Instead, he spoke with
an admirable conviction in his voice, a hint of indignant, pained
remonstrance.

"Ridiculous, my dear boy--ridiculous! Just look on me as being In your
father's place. No, no, Hamilton, there's room for all of us. There's a
reasonable profit for all of us in the business--if only we'll be
sensible about it."

"It only remains to decide as to the sensible course, then," Hamilton
rejoined, coldly. "I suppose, in this instance, it means that I should
decide to follow the course you have outlined for me. Now, I have your
offer before me on this paper. Briefly stated, your proposition to me is
that you will take all the boxes I am able to deliver to you--that is to
say, you agree to keep my factory busy. For this promise on your part,
you require two stipulations from me as conditions. The first is that I
shall not sell any boxes to the Independent Plug Tobacco Factory; the
second is that I shall sell my boxes to you at a regular price of eleven
cents each. I believe I have stated the matter accurately. Have I not?"

"You have stated it exactly," Morton assured the questioner. "That is
the situation in a nutshell."

"Unfortunately," Hamilton went on, speaking with great precision, "it's
quite impossible for me to make any such agreement with you--utterly
impossible." He looked his adversary squarely in the eye, and shook his
head in emphatic negation.